Economy Financial News

Over two days of talks between world leaders, business executives and researchers, tech CEOs such as Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman rubbed shoulders with the likes of US Vice President Kamala Harris and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the future regulation of AI.

TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan's services activity expanded at the slowest pace this year in October, a business survey showed on Monday, reinforcing concerns that the key sector propelling economic growth is continuing to soften.

The world should study China’s crushing of Hong Kong’s freedoms (Aug 24th) China’s slowing economy, seen from ground level (Aug 17th) Why Chinese women are denied legal land rights (Aug 10th) Also: How the Chaguan column got its name

Investing.com-- Oil prices rose in Asian trade on Monday amid easing fears of more Federal Reserve rate hikes, although anticipation of several economic readings this week, particularly from China, kept traders on edge. 

Investing.com-- Most Asian currencies strengthened on Monday, while the dollar hovered near six-week lows as softer-than-expected U.S. payrolls data and less hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve drove up bets that the bank was done raising interest rates.

By Lewis Jackson

Anurag Singh, Managing Partner, Ansid Capital, “we are very cautious on emerging markets. India is an exception, we will talk about it but outside India, for the rest of the emerging markets, look at the MSCI 10 year returns. They have been sub 3%. China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea have produced some phenomenal companies, but market wise they have not produced great returns.” Singh also says: “China in a big way benefited out of an export-led economy. Now exports and trade as a percentage of global GDP is dropping. It peaked out about 8 to 10 years back and now it is the time where India empowers the domestic economy and looks at the domestic facing sectors.” Friday's rally is triggered by what is happening in the world. Are you comfortable with yields coming down all of that or are you still cautious? It is good to be back in India right now. I will continue to be cautious right now. We will discuss those four or five macro trends that I am going to pull out. We would observe that there is going to be a constant pressure on the 10-year yield of the US.

Pashupati Advani, Founder & Chairman, Global Foray, says “I unfortunately bailed out of Paytm a little early, so I am kind of watching it go up and missing it. Zomato is okay and with the World Cup, definitely the numbers have been good and the stickiness is also going to be there. So it is the way India is moving and it is new patterns that are coming up and we actually have to predict those to make money.” How is your portfolio shaping up? What have you been busy analysing and adding in your portfolios? I am a little bit reluctant to add aggressively simply because we are not at highs. But there is a lot of turmoil. I find it very difficult to believe that even though people are slaughtering each other in Israel and Gaza and in Ukraine and Russia, markets continue to trade up sort of quite interestingly. But there obviously seems to be money around. But I am a little surprised at where things are going. I have actually not been so aggressive.

global currencies were steady early on Monday but seemed poised to extend last week's uptrend as the dollar nursed its losses after the Federal Reserve dialled down its hawkish rhetoric. The dollar index was flat at 105.11, with the euro at $1.0726. The dollar index declined more than 1% last week, its heaviest fall since mid-July and hit a six-week low. World stocks too had their strongest week in a year as expectations the Fed was done raising rates gathered steam.

Reuters. Donald Trump is followed by US President Joe Biden as Americans were doubtful about Biden's age and were dissatisfied with him for the way he handled the economy. As Republican frontrunner Donald Trump seeks to regain presidency, he leads the field for his party's 2024 nomination.

The Lonski Group president John Lonski and Employbridge chief workforce analyst Joanie Bily join ‘Making Money’ with reaction to the jobs report.

By Jamie McGeever

This is critical given the enormity of the challenge, the crying need for immediate action and the high price of failure. With the UN climate meeting, COP28, just a few weeks away, we must spell out the role of the two main policy levers — fiscal and monetary — and the part that wielders of these two levers — governments and central banks — can play in the battle against climate change. To borrow, incompletely, from Karl Marx's posthumously published Critique of the Gotha Programme, 1875, the respective role of governments and central banks must be guided by the Marxian principle, 'from each according to its ability' — that is, it must be based on what each is best placed to deliver, without compromising their basic roles: governance, and monetary and financial stability. Unfortunately, this often entails a trade-off.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has recently taken significant steps towards the conceptualization and eventual issuance of a digital euro, a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This development comes as a response to the increasing digitalization of the economy and financial transactions. Authored by Juan Ayuso, Director General Operations, Markets and Payment Systems, the narrative elucidates the trajectory of the digital euro project, its significance, and the benefits it proposes to offer.

Hong Kong FinTech Week 2023

Vodafone's Digital Asset Broker (DAB) and Chainlink (LINK) Labs have unveiled a proof of concept (PoC) in collaboration with Sumitomo Corporation and InnoWave. This initiative aims to tackle the inefficiencies entrenched in the mammoth $32 trillion global trade arena.

By Jarrett Renshaw

Stocks on Wall Street soared on Friday, with the major averages scoring their best week of 2023, after weak jobs boosted hopes that the Federal Reserve could be done with its interest rate hiking campaign.

6 things that changed for the stock market overnight The recent stability in Fed rates has helped the other asset classes, leading investors to chase performance through year-end. Yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury, which move inversely to bond prices, are down about 35 basis points from 16-year highs hit in October. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 surged 5.9% in the past week, its biggest gain since November 2022.

all but given up on its promise to peg ten-year borrowing costs at 1%. Some people, including Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary, say these higher interest rates are a good thing—a reflection of a world economy in the rudest of health. In fact, they are a source of danger.

National Australia Bank says borrowers are robust enough to withstand another official interest rate rise on Melbourne Cup day, providing cover for the Reserve Bank to escalate its fight against inflation.